1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to food extrusion machines for making food products such as snack foods, pastas, cereals and pet food, and more particularly to a pillow cutting system for such a machine utilizing removable, interchangeable cutting sleeves telescopically mounted on motor driven base rollers.
2. The Prior Art
The prior art is exemplified by machines currently manufactured and sold by the assignee of the present invention, American Extrusion International, Inc. A typical process utilizing such a system has a pair of pillow cutter rollers forming a nip and designed to receive and pull ropes of extruded raw material from the extrusion head of the machine. The rollers are electroless nickel plated cylindrical articles with patterns engraved on the confronting peripheral faces of the rollers. In operation, the rollers cut the extruding ropes into square or triangular pillows. Long or short filled bars can also be created with the same system.
In order to achieve a change of the pillow patterns, it is necessary to replace the entire set of rollers. Consequently, to effect such a change, the pillow cutter machine must be virtually disassembled, the pillow rollers removed, and an entirely new set of rollers installed. That is a time consuming and laborious task which is expensive and necessitates the requirement of stocking different matching sets of costly nickel plated rollers, or, acquiring an entirely separate pillow cutter machine, if and when a different cutting pattern is desired.
A single set of rollers consisting of two base rollers are provided which can be permanently mounted in the pillow cutting machine. In accordance with this invention, a plurality of sets of removable, interchangeable, cylindrical sleeves are provided. Each sleeve is sized and shaped so that it may be selectively assembled or disassembled from a corresponding base roller with great facility and convenience simply by telescopically fitting and sliding the sleeve on to the base roller. The sleeves and the base rollers are keyed with appropriate piloting means so that proper pilot orientation and timing are insured.
The individual sleeves have engraved peripheral surfaces to provide individually selectable patterns. Thus, the user may produce cut products in whatever shape is desired; square pillows, triangular pillows, long bars, short bars, sticks, diamonds, bell shapes or repetitive patterns of other geometric shapes and of bigger or smaller sizes.